Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Volunteering is an essential facet for nonprofit organizations who provide services to communities who need it the most.
In 2021, American volunteers donated an estimated 4.1 billion hours to help their communities with an economic value of $122.9 billion, according to AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. However, formal volunteer participation in America fell to 23.2% between 2019 and 2021 — a 7% decline that is the largest drop the U.S. Census survey has recorded since it began tracking it in 2002.
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Monday marks the first day of National Volunteer Week and local nonprofit organizations WBEN spoke with are pointing to trends they've seen over the last several years with regards to attendance numbers in volunteering, how crucial volunteering is and how you can show your support and give back.
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FeedMore WNY
"We greatly rely on the help of volunteers. They are truly the beating heart of our organization here at FeedMore," said FeedMore WNY's Communications Director Catherine Shick.
"Last year alone, we relied on over 4,600 volunteers that donated more than 105,000 hours of volunteer service. That was the equivalent of over $3 million of service that the volunteers provided for FeedMore Western New York. So when we say we cannot make our mission possible without our volunteers, we are absolutely telling the truth. Our volunteers are truly the lifeblood of our work here at FeedMore Western New York."
Shick mentions that FeedMore has noticed a slight decline of volunteers as the pandemic began. "We have seen some our regular volunteers in the wake of the pandemic end up deciding to continue to not return to volunteer service because of safety issues with the pandemic."
A specific area of volunteering that FeedMore is looking to address is their meal deliveries during the lunch hour.
"One of the ways we've seen a volunteer shift is less corporate partners being able to adopt meal delivery routes on a consistent basis for us, because so many people are working in a hybrid environment now or working from home. That make it a little trickier for people to do that office, consistent meal delivery route, so we were trying to tap into different networks of support," Shick said.
If you're unable to help with delivery, you can still donate your time, anytime. Shick says FeedMore works with your schedule so that any free time you can give, it will be efficiently utilized. They encourage you to call their number at 716-822-2002 or visit their website, feedmore.wny.org.
"There are hundreds of 1000s of people in Western New York are facing hunger and we have a variety of volunteer needs. To make our mission work, we need people to come into our warehouse to sort and pack boxes of emergency food kits and we always need volunteers to help us deliver meals to our homebound neighbors, served through our Meals on Wheels program. So while we're so grateful for the continued generosity of Western New York, continuing to step up and help with our mission, we do need more and more volunteers."
United Way of Buffalo and Erie County
"Volunteerism is at the bedrock of a lot of the support that United Way provides the nonprofit sector," said Trina Burruss, President and CEO of Buffalo and Erie County's United Way.
"Oftentimes, the nonprofit sector may not have the capacity in terms of employees or expertise to get things done that the community needs. And so, United Way is a way to bring the two needs together."
United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, like FeedMore, noticed a decline of volunteers at the height of the global pandemic. However, the optimism is prevalent with hopes of volunteering participation upticking.
"We're very optimistic that the community, despite the couple years hiatus, still understands the need and is willing to meet the needs of the community."
Burruss mentions that now is a great time to lend a hand, especially with the return of the United Way's countywide volunteering initiative nearing, Day of Caring, which will start earlier than usual this year and is returning for the first time since 2019.
"We've made changes to it in recognition of the types of projects that need to be done. So we're changing it from its normal timeframe, which would have been late summer, to June 21st of this year. And so we're really excited to bring that same 3000+ number of volunteers providing countless hours, and 10s of 1000s of dollars worth of value in terms of volunteer projects that they will complete."
Burruss says VolunteerWNY.org is always available for both nonprofit agencies who have projects and the individual volunteers that want to support them and those who want to register for Day of Caring can go to uwbec.org/day-of-caring. That registration starts on May 8th, but you can sign up now you can receive a notification when it opens. If you're a nonprofit organization that may have a project that you need volunteers for, you can go to that same website and submit your project and someone from the United Way team will reach out and talk through your project with you.